A Games Changer

About

From the emergence of the COVID pandemic in early 2020 through the delayed staging of the Tokyo Olympic games in summer 2021, A Games Changer takes the reader behind the scenes to explore the myriad challenges the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Japanese officials faced during the months of uncertainty leading up not only to the postponement of the Games but also to their delayed.

Drawing on a thorough review of contemporary newspaper and magazine coverage as well as personal interviews with current and former IOC officials, Stephen R. Wenn and Robert K. Barney examine Japan’s rising excitement in 2019 as preparations for the Games accelerated; whispers of a mysterious disease spreading first in China, then worldwide; organizers’ initial resolve to press forward with the Games; the tumultuous discussions that ultimately resulted in the joint March 2020 decision by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and IOC President Thomas Bach to postpone the Games; and the numerous negotiations with venues, media, and sponsors required to extend contracts and protect all parties’ health. Wenn and Barney reveal how human relationships—among planners, politicians, competitors, and vaccine researchers—were vital to presenting an Olympics where, in July and August 2021, world records were set, deferred dreams were achieved, and fears of a superspreader event went unrealized.

While tracing the struggles of multiple athletes who had to pause their Olympic hopes and training as COVID-19 closed the world, Wenn and Barney focus on the journey of Canadian decathlete Damian Warner and his coach, Gar Leyshon. Denied his usual training venues, he prepared for the rescheduled Games with ingenuity, determination, and adaptability, reflective of the resilience demonstrated by Tokyo’s Olympians around the globe. The authors’ close account of Warner’s two days in Tokyo recaptures the excitement and drama of sport that home viewers sorely needed amid pandemic lockdowns and incalculable personal loss.

Authors

Stephen R. Wenn is professor of kinesiology and physical education at Wilfrid Laurier University. A past president of the North American Society for Sport History (NASSH), he is coauthor (with Robert K. Barney) of three books on economics matters tied to the Olympics.

Robert K. Barney is professor emeritus of kinesiology at Western University and past president of NASSH. His scholarship, presented in more than three hundred publications, focuses largely on the historicity of the modern Olympic movement.

Praise

“Faced with the COVID-19 pandemic, the IOC and Japanese authorities postponed the 2020 Tokyo Olympics for one year. Wenn and Barney’s memorable description and assessment of the challenges encountered in staging the Games on a delayed basis offer a valuable contribution to world and Olympic history.”
—Richard W. Pound, honorary member of the International Olympic Committee

“Wenn and Barney have devoted their professional lives to exploring the cultural phenomenon that is the modern Olympic movement. In A Games Changer, these two foremost scholars of international sport deliver a riveting study of a landmark event which brought the world together at a moment of great crisis. This book reminds us that for all its sordid history, the modern Olympics remains one of humanity’s most inspirational platforms.”
—Thomas M. Hunt, author of Drug Games: The International Olympic Committee and the Politics of Doping, 1960–2008

“In A Games Changer, Wenn and Barney offer a remarkable tale of human perseverance in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges. Rather than surrendering to the temptation to cancel the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the midst of a global pandemic, quarantines, social distancing, and intense criticism from many quarters, IOC President Thomas Bach and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe instead made the unprecedented decision to reschedule them for a year later. Anchored in primary-source research and interviews with some of the key actors in this drama, this study demonstrates that the resulting competition was a victory for all humanity.”
—Kevin B. Witherspoon, author of Before the Eyes of the World: Mexico and the 1968 Olympic Games